At Leopardstown, Ger Lyons' Wendla won the Al Shira'aa Racing "Mutamakina" Stakes, earning a Group Three prize.
Juddmonte owns and breeds the three-year-old, whose dam, Intercontinental, is a daughter of the legendary mare Hasili.
After winning a Naas maiden to kick off the season, Wendla finished sixth over seven furlongs in the Priory Belle at Leopardstown early in April.
Returning to the same course, she ran a mile under Colin Keane this time, starting at 7-1 odds in a field of seven and leading the field from the outset.
She never let up after that, closing the distance to win by three-quarters of a length, with Aidan O'Brien's Buttons, the 6-5 favourite, finishing in second place.
“She’s a lovely, honest filly. The ground comes all the same to her, she’s handled heavy and she handled that,” said Lyons. “She’s a light filly so I didn’t have any doubts she’d handle that. I probably had her wrong and Colin had her right. I thought the way the race was run it wasn’t going to suit, she’s pacier than I gave her credit for. I had her down as a horse, going forward, that would go further sooner rather than later. Colin has her as having more speed than I gave her credit for, thankfully he was right. He was in the right place for her and she answered and did it well. You couldn’t knock the performance. When you get those fillies, you try to win a maiden to tick the first box and then you are looking for black type and winning black type is brilliant. I just thought we were going too slow, they were doing 14-seconds fractions and that’s too slow. I was thinking we’re in trouble and that speed is just going to go past us. Thankfully I was wrong about my filly, she’s quicker than I gave her credit for.”
When asked if she could tackle the Irish 1,000 Guineas, Lyons added: “I wouldn’t think so but we’ll talk to Barry and Rory (Mahon, of Juddmonte) and better brains than me will decide that. She’s earned the right and the lads can decide that. If she ends up doing what Zarinsk did last year, we’ll be over the moon. There are big races here at the end of the year that we can aim for, the mile race (Matron Stakes).”